Watershed Permit Issued for Menomonee River

December 12, 2012

Milwaukee Riverkeeper is a partner of the Southeastern Wisconsin Watershed Trust, or Sweet Water Trust. One of Sweet Water’s major initiatives over the last few years was to work with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the EPA, MMSD and others to craft Wisconsin’s first watershed-based stormwater permit. We are pleased to announce that 11 municipalities (including Milwaukee County) within the Menomonee River Watershed have agreed to participate in this watershed-based stormwater permit, which went into effect November 29, 2012.

This permit requires each municipality to meet the baseline municipal stormwater regulations required by EPA, but also includes “group” permit provisions that require municipalities to work together across boundaries on watershed projects and stormwater education/outreach. This should allow municipalities to better leverage limited financial resources and to work on larger projects to benefit the watershed. In addition, the permit includes improved monitoring requirements that require more comprehensive testing of stormwater outfalls of all sizes (federal guidelines only require municipalities to test “major” or large outfalls), and require the municipalities to work together to come up with a unified strategy for identifying, detecting, and eliminating suspected sources of human sewage entering the stormwater system.

A press event and celebration is set for Tuesday, December 18th at 9 am at the headquarters of MMSD (260 W Seeboth Street on the Menomonee River).

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